Case 4-Eur-Greece-Athens-Athena Parthenos by Phidias
Fig. 1. This miniature statue represents Phidia’s Athena standing majestically, fully armed and holding a 4-cubit tall statue of Nike in her right hand.
Fig. 2. The statue of Nike in Athena’s hand was also much copied, notably in a full-size copy from Cyrene now in Philadelphia.
Athena wore a peplos. She held a large spear in her left hand which rests on the floor. On her triple-crested helmet stood a sphinx and two griffins with Pegasus wings either side; griffins also decorated the cheek-pieces. On the goddess’ chest was the snake-tasselled aegis given to her by Zeus with the head of the gorgon. The Athena statue was removed when Greece adopted Christianity and converted the Parthenon into a church; the statue's fate is unknown. Later, the Parthenon served as a munitions storage depot, and a medieval explosion reduced it to the ruins seen today.
Fig.3. This is the famous Attica Tetradrachm known as the “Owl Coin” that represented Phidias’s Athena Parthenos. Obv.: Head of Goddess Athena, Rev. Owl standing. Diameter: 25 mm.
Fig. 4. Another copy of the famous Attica Tetradrachm known as the “Owl Coin” that represented Phidias’s Athena Parthenos. Obv.: Head of Goddess Athena, Rev. Owl standing. Diameter: 25 mm.
Fig. 5. The Varvakeion Athena reflects the type of the restored Athena Parthenos: Roman period, 2nd century CE (National Archaeological Museum of Athens). Athena Varvakeion, small Roman replica of the Athena Parthenos by Phidias. Found in Athens near the Varvakeion school, hence the name. First half of the 3rd c. CE. This is considered the best preserved and most complete representation of Pheidias’ lost masterpiece which is a 1.05 m tall Roman copy in marble from the 2nd century CE and which now resides in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
Other full figures, albeit with some damage, include the ‘Lenormant statuette’, another Roman copy, 2nd or 3rd century CE, 42 cm tall (also in Athens); the 86 cm tall ‘Patras statuette’ (in Patras); a 1.54 m tall figure now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and a Hellenistic version from Pergamon which is 3.1 m tall and preserves some partial figures on the base (Berlin).
Detailed depictions of the head appear on a 2nd c CE Emeryk Hutten-Czapski Palace in Kraków
Fig. 6. Gold medallion, 126-125 BCE, head of the sculpture of Athena Parthenos by Phidias in the Emeryk Hutten-Czapski Palace in Kraków. Image taken by Mathiasrex, Maciej Szczepańzyk from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/Tetradrachm_of_Athens
Fig. 7. A 3rd century Roman marble copy of the shield is the so-called ‘Strangford shield’, named after its owner Lord Strangford, now in the British Museum, London . BM Acc. No. 1864,0220.18.